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Jules Verne spacecraft burns up as planned: European Space Agency


CBC
Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:57 UTC
Image
© European Space Agency
One of the first images of the re-entry of the European Space Agency's space freighter, Jules Verne, over the Pacific Ocean
A European spacecraft packed with garbage from the International Space Station burst into flames during a controlled re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere on Monday.

The planned burn followed the craft's six-month mission to the space station to provide the crew there with a fresh shipment of food, fuel and supplies. The crew reloaded the freighter with 2.5 tonnes of garbage before launching it back into space.
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Clock

Controversy over dating techniques: Discovery of world's oldest rocks challenged

Catherine Brahic
New Scientist
Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:44 UTC
ancient rocks
© Science/AAAS
A large band of ancient rocks in northern Quebec, known as the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt, has produced what may be the oldest rock on Earth – at 4.28 billion years old
Geologists in Canada may have discovered the oldest rocks on Earth. But a controversy over the techniques used to date the rocks is threatening to overshadow the discovery.

Finding the oldest rocks on Earth is important because they should help scientists solve one of geology's great mysteries: how the surface of our planet was transformed from the ocean of magma that existed in the Hadean - the earliest era in Earth's history - into the floating tectonic plates we have today.
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Magic Wand

Tsunami Invisibility Cloak Could Make Structures 'Disappear'


Science Daily
Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:34 UTC
Rather than building stronger ocean-based structures to withstand tsunamis, it might be easier to simply make the structures disappear.

Image
© M. Farhat, S. Enoch, S. Guenneau and A.B. Movchan
Laboratory experiments show that obstacles arranged in fluids in certain patterns can effectively make objects they surround invisible to waves. If it works as well in in scaled-up versions, it could lead to new ways to protect ocean-based platforms and coasts from devastating tsunamis.
A collaboration of physicists from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Aix-Marseille Universite in France and the University of Liverpool in England have conducted laboratory experiments showing that it's possible to make type of dike that acts as an invisibility cloak that hides off-shore platforms from water waves. The principle is analogous to the optical invisibility cloaks that are currently a hot area of physics research.
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Question

Dark Energy: Is It Merely An Illusion?


Science Daily
Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:09 UTC
Dark energy is at the heart of one of the greatest mysteries of modern physics, but it may be nothing more than an illusion, according physicists at Oxford University.

mysterious, dark force
© NASA/STScI/Ann Feild
Changes in the rate of expansion since the universe's birth 15 billion years ago. The more shallow the curve, the faster the rate of expansion. The curve changes noticeably about 7.5 billion years ago, when objects in the universe began flying apart at a faster rate. Astronomers theorize that the faster expansion rate is due to a mysterious, dark force that is pulling galaxies apart.
The problem facing astrophysicists is that they have to explain why the universe appears to be expanding at an ever increasing rate. The most popular explanation is that some sort of force is pushing the accelerating the universe's expansion. That force is generally attributed to a mysterious dark energy.

Although dark energy may seem a bit contrived to some, the Oxford theorists are proposing an even more outrageous alternative. They point out that it's possible that we simply live in a very special place in the universe - specifically, we're in a huge void where the density of matter is particularly low. The suggestion flies in the face of the Copernican Principle, which is one of the most useful and widely held tenants in physics.
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Question

Ancient Beast Had Armor Down Under

Sue Vorenberg
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:45 UTC
New Mexico scientists discover fossilized remains of Typothorax with protective spikes

Don't call them perverts, but when two New Mexico paleontologists found a spiked opening on a fossilized 210 million-year-old animal - - in a place the sun doesn't generally shine -- they realized they had discovered something exciting.

The creature, called a Typothorax, appears to have had a protective cover over its naughty bits, although the actual purpose of the spikes hasn't quite been determined, they said.

"Is it an ancient chastity belt? Is it a clasper-type adaptation used in sexual activity? We just don't know yet," said Andy Heckert, an assistant geology professor at Appalachian State University in North Carolina and former geosciences collection manager at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
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Pharoah

Ancient graves in Greece shed light on early Macedonia


Reuters
Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:34 UTC
Gold jewelry, weapons and pottery are found near Pella, birthplace of the kingdom's legendary leader Alexander the Great.

Pella treasures
© Greek Culture Ministry
Jewelry found in a woman’s grave at Pella, northern Greece, dates to between 650 and 279 BC. Under Alexander’s conquests, Macedonia stretched as far as India.
Archaeologists have unearthed gold jewelry, weapons and pottery at an ancient burial site near Pella in northern Greece, the birthplace of Alexander the Great, the Culture Ministry said this week.

The excavations at the vast cemetery uncovered 43 graves dating from 650 to 279 BC, shedding new light on the early development of the Macedonian kingdom, which stretched as far as India under Alexander's conquests.
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Bulb

'Hub' of fear memory formation identified in brain cells


Emory University
Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:56 UTC
A protein required for the earliest steps in embryonic development also plays a key role in solidifying fear memories in the brains of adult animals, scientists have revealed. An apparent "hub" for changes in the connections between brain cells, beta-catenin could be a potential target for drugs to enhance or interfere with memory formation.

The results are published online this week and appear in the October issue of Nature Neuroscience.

The protein beta-catenin acts like a Velcro strap, fastening cells' internal skeletons to proteins on their external membranes that connect them with other cells. In species ranging from flies to frogs to mice, it also can transmit early signals that separate an embryo into front and back or top and bottom.
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Bulb

UCLA Mathematicians Discover 13-Million-Digit Prime Number


Associated Press
Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:41 UTC
Mathematicians at UCLA have discovered a 13-million-digit prime number, a long-sought milestone that makes them eligible for a $100,000 prize.

The group found the 46th known Mersenne prime last month on a network of 75 computers running Windows XP. The number was verified by a different computer system running a different algorithm.

"We're delighted," said UCLA's Edson Smith, the leader of the effort. "Now we're looking for the next one, despite the odds."
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Telescope

NASA Orbiter Reveals Rock Fracture Plumbing On Mars


Science Daily
Sun, 28 Sep 2008 19:39 UTC
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed hundreds of small fractures exposed on the Martian surface that billions of years ago directed flows of water through underground Martian sandstone.

Mars deformation bands
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Dense clusters of crack-like structures called deformation bands form the linear ridges prominent in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Researchers used images from the spacecraft's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera. Images of layered rock deposits at equatorial Martian sites show the clusters of fractures to be a type called deformation bands, caused by stresses below the surface in granular or porous bedrock.

"Groundwater often flows along fractures such as these, and knowing that these are deformation bands helps us understand how the underground plumbing may have worked within these layered deposits," said Chris Okubo of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Visible effects of water on the color and texture of rock along the fractures provide evidence that groundwater flowed extensively along the fractures.
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Roses

Iberian Peninsula's Earliest Agricultural Systems Were Unsustainable


Science Daily
Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:57 UTC
Archaeological site
© SINC / A. Rovira
Archaeological site of Los Castillejos, Granada.
A team of Catalan and Andalusian researchers has proved that the first agricultural systems on the Iberian Peninsula became ever more unsustainable with the passage of time. The study involved the analysis of fossilised grains of wheat and barley from Los Castillejos (Granada), an area of archaeological remains where cereals were cultivated between 4000 and 2500 BCE.

Mónica Aguilera, an engineer from the Vegetable Physiology Unit at the University of Barcelona (UB) and co-author of the study, told SINC that the natural levels of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes were measured in order to estimate the yield and nutritional status of the ancient crops. "The size of the grain and levels of the carbon 13 (13C) isotopes allowed us to estimate yield, while the nutritional status of the crop was analysed by measuring levels of the nitrogen 15 (15N) isotopes," the researcher explained.

Figures revealed by the study show a reduction of around 35% in the yield of wheat crops and 30% in barley between the years 4000 and 2500 BCE (end of the Bronze Age). The average weight of the grains of these cereals also fell by 10 miligrammes (33%) and 12 mg (38%) respectively. The research also revealed a 33% reduction in the nitrogen content of the wheat grains and 56% in barley.
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